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The Great Star Trek Voyager Rewatch: Q2

Four years ago, Q and his mate became the first parents in the Q Continuum. But now their son is in his rebellious teenage years, Q finds himself looking to Janeway and the crew of Voyager to instil a little discipline in him. But can a crew of mere humanoids really hope to get through to a young omnipotent being?

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been dreading this episode for months. As we all know by now, I’m no fan of Q episodes, and I didn’t remember enjoying this one at all. Fortunately, by setting my expectations so low, I found the experience at least tolerable.

The producers did a good job in casting John de Lancie’s son as Q2, who brings the right level of arrogance and teenage uncertainty to the role, whilst bearing the requisite physical resemblance to his father. Whilst his journey from being unbearable and smug to more contrite and compassionate runs along predictable lines, it makes for acceptable viewing. Am I just being worn down by the vast amount of Star Trek I’ve watched these past two years?

Points of Note

Why didn’t Chakotay just lock the holodeck controls so that Q2 couldn’t alter the personalities of the holograms? Was it also meant to be a test of honour and character?

Even the Continuum have a rule about not provoking the Borg, even though they could presumably erase the Borg from existence if they wanted.

Icheb has become obsessed with the minutiae of James T Kirk’s original five year mission.

It’s a shame Icheb can’t use the spatial rift technique he saw Q2 use in order to send Voyager home. Maybe Q wiped the Delta Flyer’s logs.

When sitting in judgement of Q2, the members of the Continuum wear the same robes that Q did when he was judging the crew of the Enterprise-D.

Lost, crashed or destroyed shuttlecraft running total: 17

Destroyed Delta Flyer running total: 1

Possibly salvageable shuttlecraft running total: 10

Number of times the entire crew gets enslaved or kicked off the ship: 4.5